Solder melting point on the other hand is much lower, depending on the solder type. And if the external temperatures were so high, it is very likely the internal temperatures were very close to that point.
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wow 130c? i cant imagine what the inside was… not really healthy reaching those temps….
What about the melting point of the other components.
Yeah — Like those cells producing their own heat plus the lights heat — Not Good — Boom
Well, it looks like Imalent quality has not changed over the years.
That’s really unfortunate, did you contact Imalent? I’m curious to see how they handle this
i don’t know that light—does it have any sort of control to step down or shut off?
My biggest concern would be the batteries, if you wreck a light that sucks but explosions and HF gas or the potential or long term hidden damage to the batteries is what scares me.
lucky you caught it.
thermal runaway of li ion is not pretty.
pissed off batteries plus tightly closed aluminum tube = pipe bomb!
bad design if its driver allowed this.
hey lets just dd 18 xhp-70 in this to one up the other guys.
who cares if a few explode.
Mine got really hot but it was after continuous use for some time and then the activation on the 60.000 and 100.000lumens.
Then a “HOT” signal appeared in the OLED screen, the fans were already working and the light eventually shut off (I guess, i can’t remember if it was me that clicked or if it shut off, but I’d bet on the second one).
But yes, it turned really HOT! I wouldn’t expect it to behave differently (on these levels).
On 10.000 lumens, it is weird and not good :zipper_mouth_face:
Wow, good thing you caught this before the batteries reached critical. I wonder how many hours were burned off the LED at this point!
The fans turn on with the higher modes, but not the 10,000 lumen setting.
The runtimes for the other high/turbo modes are less than 1 hour each.
Well that’s a pretty stupid design if the light can reach dangerous temperatures on the levels without fan activation! :person_facepalming:
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Wow, if any flashlight needed a thermal stepdown, looks like the Imalent MS18 does.
the leds may be damaged also
Possibly.
But on the other hand, LEDs are designed to accept heat during operation and reflows. They’re pretty tough. And the operating life of an LED tends to be orders of magnitude larger than the rest of the flashlight anyways. If an LED loses half its operating life from misuse it will still likely last much longer than the rest of the light.
My biggest concern would be the batteries blowing up. And if that didn’t happen, overheating might cause the rubber switch boot to melt, or the solder on the driver and/or star to melt.
The electronics like inductors, FETs, caps, resistors, .etc and leds would survive that, but the solder joints wouldn’t if using sn/pb solder for reflow…wires coming loose can cause shorts and that’s what kills things. Shame on imalent for omitting a continuous cooling loop for turbo on that near $700 light capable of hundreds of watts of output.
This.
And it should have had a temp sensor that automatically turns on the fan and/or reduces output when the light gets too hot no matter what brightness setting the operator is using.
Before seeing this post, that’s how I assumed an MS18 would work. Guess not…
Does seem a bit strange that a $700 light lacks a core safety feature that has been standard on $50 light for several years now.
… at least I assume this is the case based on the original poast. I don’t actually own an MS18 myself.